PC Format turns 300!

Grab a free issue of issue one to see how far we've come…

Three hundred issues. Twenty four years. Over 22,000 pages covering the wonderful world of technology, equating to something like 13 million words on our favourite subject.

That's an incredible body of work, and a great achievement for this humble magazine.

Few manage to get to the point where the issue number rolls over to the big 300. But that's exactly what all of us have managed (and that includes anyone who has ever bought the magazine).

You only have to look back at the first issue to see just how much technology has moved on. Indeed, that's something you can do right now, because we've made the first issue of PC Format available for free here using the wonders of modern technology (well, maybe not that modern, but it's still free).

Back in issue one we gave readers a chance to win an external CD drive reader package worth no less than £400. The adverts are a well of information as well.

Guess how much a 20MHz, 80386- powered Zenith PC with 2MB of memory, 60MB hard drive and VGA 640 x 480 screen would set you back? How about a cool £1,000?

Yeah, and that was actually a pretty good deal for the day.

Just to put that first issue in some kind of gaming perspective, the reviews are of Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and Gunship 2000 – PCs were already seen as the best way to experience flight simulators, although as a sign of things to come, Speedball 2 also makes an appearance.

The shareware section is home to a review of one Commander Keen as well, from a small company that went on to do some big things: Id Software.

To highlight just how far we've come in that time, this issue we've set ourselves the task of building a £300 PC that is capable of playing the latest games.

This isn't a rig on which you'll have to ease back on all the settings in order to hit smooth frame rates at 1080p, either – there's surprising power in this little rig.

It is, of course overclocked. Although don't be put off by that; we'll guide you through exactly what you need to do, and we haven't even plumped for any kind of exceptional cooling – just the stock unit that ships with the CPU itself.

Get ready to build an impressive machine that won't break the bank, just people's preconceptions. The fact that this machine will give consoles a good run for their money is just the icing on the cake.

There are plenty of other great articles in the issue too, including a feature on how the way we pay for games has changed, which screen should be the top of your wish list, how to solve any PC problem, a round-up of the best GeForce GTX 970 cards right now, plus reviews of the latest hardware and games.